Milwaukee – Today, Aurora Health Care announces the launch of the Aurora Research Institute. The institute will centralize existing research endeavors at Aurora and open the door for more studies, partnerships and collaborations.

“We focus on innovative research that improves patients’ quality of life,” said Randall Lambrecht, PhD, Aurora’s senior vice president of research. “The institute will allow Aurora to offer patients more options by expanding the amount of research we do within Aurora, as well as growing collaborative work with outside businesses and academic institutions.”

The institute will house research that transforms new discoveries into practical ways to improve patient outcomes. Aurora offers 700 clinical research projects, including over 400 clinical trials, more than any other organization in Wisconsin. Through this patient-centered research, Aurora gives patients access to more new drugs and devices than any other health care system in the state.

In addition to benefiting patients, the institute is expected to drive economic growth by bringing new businesses and jobs to the state through partnerships with Aurora.

In 2012, research at Aurora brought in $25 million to Wisconsin from pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, as well as federal agencies.

Aurora’s research includes work in the areas of cardiovascular medicine, oncology, women’s health and the neurosciences.

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Among Aurora’s research efforts is the Center for Integrative Research in Cardiovascular Aging. Headed by nationally recognized cardiovascular researcher, Arshad Jahangir, MD, this center has attracted more than $2 million in funding from NIH Heart, Lung & Blood Institute. Its work includes trials that use a patient’s own stem cells in an effort to regrow blood vessels in damaged areas of the heart.

Aurora’s partnerships include Oracle Inc., which is helping to manage and mine the enormous amount of data in Aurora’s rapidly growing biobank, the Open-source Robotic Biorepository and Information Technology center or ORBIT. Data from the biobank is helping to speed the development of new drugs, devices and therapies for patients.

The institute’s administrative offices will be based at Aurora Sinai Medical Center, while research supported by the institute will be located throughout the Aurora health system.

Aurora Health Care is a 15-hospital system with 172 clinics, more than 70 pharmacies and 1,500 physicians in eastern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. It has the largest home health organization in Wisconsin. It also trains more than 2,400 residents, interns, fellows and students in medicine, nursing and the allied health professions, and Aurora has affiliations with 104 academic institutions.